Photocatalysis Combined with Chromatographic Methods as a New Promising Tool in Drug Metabolism Studies - A Review

The number of new drugs launched to the market is constantly increasing; however, the metabolism of many of them is still not fully established. The knowledge of drug metabolism pathways is crucial for the efficacy and safety of therapies and, in classical approach, requires the use of animals as well as human volunteers, but this kind of research is expensive and time-consuming. Therefore, nowadays, more and more biological and chemical in vitro methods are developed for the drug metabolism study. This review is focused on the photocatalytic degradation of chemicals and the application of this process in chromatographic methods of drug metabolism research. A theoretical background of photocatalysis and all its applications in a drug metabolism study were reviewed, and other in vitro methods that are actually used were summarized and discussed. Other analytical methods used in this area were also discussed and compared.